Erin Sintos/Max Do you really wanna, do you really wanna taste ... a new opening credits scene inPeacemakerseason 2? CreatorJames Gunnand starJohn Cenapromise that the new dance sequence will be just as good as the now-viral scene set toWig Wam's "Do Ya Wanna Taste It"— with an added bonus this time. "I'll give you an exclusive: You get to see Eagly try to dance for the first time," Gunn tellsEntertainment Weekly. "So that's really something. He is not the best at it, but he tries to really join in the dance sequence at the end. He's got a little pose this time." While fans won't get to see the new credits dance sequence until Comic-Con in July, Cena promises it will be worth the wait. "This time around, everybody looked at it through a different lens, knowing how much the audience enjoyed the first one," the actor, who plays the titular DC antihero, says. "[We knew] this is going to be a cornerstone of the show, so let's dive in. Everyone gave their best in season 1, but I just think people now know the importance of it and hopefully it shines through in season 2." As for why the show scrapped the fan-favorite credits sequence to film a new one for season 2, Gunn explains they really had no other choice. "We killed everyone in the season, so we kind of had to. Everyone died!" he says with a laugh. "Also, we have a lot of new cast members —Tim Meadowsis Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez is Sasha Bordeaux, andMichael Rooker's in the cast, Judomaster is a bigger character this time — so I knew that I needed to do a new dance." The bigger question that Gunn faced was whether to keep the Wig Wam song for a new choreographed dance or pick a totally new hair metal track. "I really went back and forth an awful lot," Gunn says. "And at the end of the day, I decided that we use a new song that's a little bit more about what the season's about." But, the showrunner (and new head of DC) clarifies, he didn't set out to one-up last season's credits sequence, because he knew that would most likely fail. "I think there's 4 billion views of the dance sequence on TikTok, so when you have something that's that viral, I just wanted to do a good job with the [new] dance sequence," Gunn explains. "I don't know if the dance sequence ever is going to one-up the first, because no one expected it. It was a complete surprise, and you just can't replicate that. However, the surprises within the show itself, I think, replicate that many times over, because there's so many more twists and turns in this season with what happens and what you find out about this universe." Erin Sintos/Max It's been more than three years since the hilarious and derangedSuicide Squadspinoff series debuted on HBO Max, and Cena is just grateful he was finally able to don Peacemaker's shiny helmet again, no matter how long it took. "Thanks for your patience," Cena says. "I know we've had a lot of fans that have been waiting with bated breath, but the DC universe went through a bit of a shift so I'm glad we're here now, and I think everything is done in the right perspective. I'm so grateful that the audience hasn't forgotten about us, and to have James not abandon ship and hang in there for whenever the time was right to get back to work, that's really good." Gunn admits the extra long wait was "simply because of me." He explains, "Once I was done withPeacemaker, I had to doGuardians 3, and then when I was about ready to jump [back] intoPeacemaker, I got hired to be the head of DC. As soon as I got that job, I made a couple of calls, and the first one was to [Marvel's] Kevin Feige telling him that I'm taking the [job as] head of DC. The second one was to John Cena, and I said, 'I'm getting this gig, and I still want to doPeacemaker, but it's going to have to wait. We're going to have to getSupermanworking first.'" The showrunner laughs as he adds that he just had to "get through this other little movie, this little side project first," referring toSuperman, before he could focus on finally returning to make more ofPeacemaker."As soon as I was done writingSuperman, I was able to write season 2 ofPeacemaker," Gunn says. "I know it seems like a long time for other people, but for me it all seems awful short because there was so many things I did in between." If it seems like Gunn accomplished a superhuman task with the sheer amount of movies and shows in the past few years (which also includesCreature Commandos) while also planning out the future of the entire onscreen DC Universe, that's because it absolutely was. "I will never do it again," he admits with another laugh. "I will tell you that much. It waswaytoo much." But taking over all of DC's slate in betweenPeacemakerseasons turned out to benefit the series, since it actually helped Gunn weave season 2 into the larger overall universe more organically. "I developed it along the way, in conjunction with the other DC projects that we're doing, so it's very much connected toSupermanand it's very much connected to what comes after," Gunn says. "I had a rough idea of what I was going to do, but it was actually quite different than what the show ended up being." The season 2 trailer already revealed some bigSupermancameos:Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern Guy Gardner,Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl, andSean Gunn's Maxwell Lord. But James reveals there's even more connections to DC's big screen reset coming inPeacemaker. "You've seen what we call the QUC, the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, in the first season ofPeacemaker, and we see more about that technology inSuperman," James says. "The QUC is the center of the story inPeacemakerseason 2... We see a lot of different characters fromSupermanin the [season], [including] Isabela and Nathan and Sean, and then we see a bunch of other characters later on in the season from other parts of the DCU and fromSuperman. There might even be one really, really, really big cameo near the end of the show." As for why patriotic killer Peacemaker (real name: Christopher Smith) finds himself face-to-face with theSupermantrio glimpsed in the trailer, James explains that it's a direct result of the events of season 1. Sign up forEntertainment Weekly'sfree daily newsletterto get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. "We come into season 2 with Peacemaker knowing that he saved the world from the Butterflies," Gunn says. "He thinks he's a big star now, and he should be a real superhero. And we see at the very beginning of episode 1 that he's meeting with the group of superheroes fromSuperman, and he's basically interviewing for membership in the group. But they just mock him the entire time, so he's not taken seriously." Season 2 is going to explore how Peacemaker struggles to be taken seriously by the metahuman community. "He's still considered a punchline among all of the other metahumans, so he's starting the season in a bad place," James says. "As are all of our heroes, all of the 11th Street kids — well, everybody but Vigilante [Freddie Stroma], who just always seems to be okay with everything." James reveals that it's also been "a couple years" on the show since the events of the finale, but he's keeping the timeline vague on purpose. "I see how difficult, after all my time at Marvel, it is to make things truly fit together, so it's an unspecified amount of a couple of years," he adds. Erin Sintos/Max That allows the show to introduce some new characters, including Rooker's new role after his appearances inSuicide SquadandCreature Commandos.Rooker debuts in season 2 as the "nemesis" to Peacemaker's eagle sidekick, Eagly (check out EW's exclusive first look at his character above). "His name is Red St. Wild, and he's the world's foremost eagle hunter who is on a mission to kill Eagly," James says. "We thought Eagly was probably the most popular character from season 1, and so in season 2, he has his own story with his nemesis, played by none other than the despicable Michael Rooker." Another new character that James can't wait for fans to meet is A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury, played by comedy veteran Meadows, because he fills the void left by Peacemaker's emotional growth. "In a lot of ways, Peacemaker has changed a lot this season," James says. "He's a much softer guy, he's a much nicer guy, he's less in your face and less obnoxious and less aggressive. He has changed as a human being, so Langston Fleury actually takes up a lot of being a total asshole in the same way Peacemaker was [last season]. He's a very politically incorrect asshole throughout most of the season, and also an incredibly funny guy." There's clearly a lot to look forward to inPeacemaker's long-awaited return, but James still has one more tease up his sleeve. "It's all about the twists and turns," he says. "It's about the surprises that we find out in episode 1, it's about the surprises we find out in [episodes] 6, and 8. And it's a very, very emotional season — there's a lot of comedy like the first season, but there's also a lot of emotion in it, and it's really good." Peacemakerfinally returns Thursday, August 21, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, on HBO Max. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly